Changed
by BluHaze
Summary: "The disease has no cure. It's like cancer, the affected cells replicate too fast. We can detect the causative gene now but the Government won't stop the massacres. Each child is tested for the gene, but we do not need tests; you can tell the diseased, they are ethereally beautiful, too strong and too fast. I would know, my Edward is one of them." Carlisle Cullen
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Bella's fingers were cold with the night as they clutched the coarse blanket closer beneath her chin. Curling on her side, she gazed out from beneath stray locks of her dingy brown hair to glance at the girl lying beside her. Their silent exchange was filled with terror and their anguish was worsened by the soft sobs and whimpers of girls in the other beds. Bella's eyes never strayed from the teary gray eyes of her friend, Alice. Slowly raising her index finger to her lips she softly ushered the girl to hush her wracking sobs with a quiet "shhh".

The heavy stomping in the corridor grew louder. The adults' voices shouting loudly down the hall suddenly silenced every sound of despair in the murky dorm-room. Aside from the occasional sniffle, silence reigned until the heavy, wooden door was thrown open. Bella flinched in her bed, her dark eyes wide and glistening with tears that threatened to spill over and fall down her grimy cheek. Never did she allow her eyes to fall away from her friend's, not even as the stomping of heavy, metal heeled shoes entered the room. The footsteps passed by every bed, pausing for a moment before moving on. They stopped at the end of Bella's and she stopped breathing, her mouth open in terror.

Each second seemed to last a lifetime and the adults relished the terrified suspense. They took their time working out which child was due to be taken and increasing the fearful tension in the room. Today though, was not Bella's turn to be taken away, but she knew it would likely never come. She was not like Alice or the others who had already been stolen away by the adults. They were different, unlike all other children and they were bwrong/b. Or at least that is what the grownups said…

There was a clicking of high heels as they too entered the room and walked to the end of Bella's bed. There was a hissed exchange, a loud whispering and then finally they moved passed her bed. Bella let a soft breath of air whoosh from between her parted lips, yet she froze, her eyes clenched shut as suddenly as shadow fell across her face. She heard Alice whimper and then scream as her blanket was ripped away.

Opening her eyes, Bella watched the same tall, brown haired man that she had seen at the Stealing before, reach down and grab Alice's wrist. Unceremoniously he dragged her from the small, rickety bed on which she lay. Her feet barely reached the floor, before Mr Banner was walking away, dragging her behind him. Her bare feet scrabbled along the splintery wooden floor. Bella winced, her mind flooded with the memories of so many nights she and Alice had spent together attempting to remove each splinter they received from the rough floorboards.

There was a thud as Alice fought, her sobs and screams breaking through the painful silence that had befallen the young girls in the dorm room. Her shortly cut, black hair made her look like a young boy as she grappled with the man, clawing and fighting. She would never have gone in silence, Bella knew this, but she could not bear to listen to her friend fight a battle she would surely lose.

A second, louder thump came just as Banner reached the door with Alice. She fell out of his grasp, her knees hitting the floor heavily and she scrambled to her feet, running to the end of Isabella's bed. She grasped the metal bedstead her desperate cries breaking Bella with every sobbed word. "Please! Bella, help me! Help me! HELP!"

Bella sat up, her body was like ice-cold stone as she wracked her brain for an escape plan. Her eyes were wide as she watched her friend plead with her. The girl's beautiful, porcelain hued face was drawn with fear as tears streaked down her pale cheeks. Alice's ruby red lips quivered with her sobs and she shimmered from Bella's view as tears filled her eyes.

Alice screamed again as Mr Banner caught up with her and behind him, the red headed woman pulled a syringe from a small leather clutch bag. Swiftly, she assembled the needle and syringe before grappling with Alice's thrashing arms and finally injecting the clear substance into the girl's arm. Alice continued to fight for a mere two seconds longer before she began to fall limp, her body slumping into the man's arms. Finally, in the deathly silence that had now fallen across the room, Banner and the auburn woman left, the heavy dorm door slamming shut. No one stirred, but the muffled sounds of sobs began to fill the room for another hour before each one faded into silence as sleep finally descended upon the room. The only one who remained awake through the night was Bella as she lay staring through tearful eyes at her friend's messy, empty bed.


	2. Chapter 1

**Ten years later.**

I woke in a sweat, the sheets were tangled about my legs and my arm ached from where I must have strained it whilst thrashing. I always thrashed when I dreamt. My dreams were rarely ever nice. There had been too much misery in my life up until now for my dreams to be anything but nightmares. My hands pressed against my ears for they still rang with Alice's screams to help her. Her shouts and her voice were as clear and as panicked and terrified as if she had only just been taken by Banner.

Glancing to the clock, the neon green light informed me that it was time to get up. My alarm was set to go off in five minutes but I was too awake now to even allow myself to lie back until then. Getting out of bed, I walked across the soft carpet of my bedroom floor and, not for the first time, I was saddened that Alice would never have experienced such a sensation as a soft, plush carpet. She would have died with her feet chapped, worn and littered in splinter wounds. It was not a memory I wanted to recall and as I turned the handle of the shower and warm water cascaded down on me, I proceeded to wash away all memories of the orphanage and the friends I lost there. I scrubbed my skin until it felt raw and my mind chose to drift to Alice as I remembered her before that night.

Alice had been a special girl, even for one of ithem/i. I knew the moment I saw her that our friendship would be short lived and most definitely terminated by the time she was 14. I was seven when I arrived at the orphanage and had been there for three years by the time Alice arrived. Her parents, the Brandon's were famous in our society, they had been figures leading the way for research into the new disease. They were much loved in our community because they were good, honest people that yearned for the day when their disease would be understood. The disease is a killer. It kills and it is killed. That was how Alice came to be orphaned, as not even society's high flyers could escape the government massacres. The Brandon's execution went public, so people could see that the politicians were working to eradicate the disease and those carrying it. After their death, Alice was sent to one of the government orphanages where she met me. She was just biding her time until the government came for her.

Why did the government wait? Because the disease does not kick in until later in life… As Doctor Carlisle Cullen's recent research found: the disease is like cancer, if you have the gene, then your cells will mutate. Its not a case of if, but when, and that occurs at the latter end of childhood, when hormones kick in and the turn over of cells is at its highest. That is when cancer can be at its worst and that is what this disease does. Yet where cancer weakens and kills, this disease makes you stronger and faster. The predisposing gene and onset of the disease create an ethereal beauty about the sufferers. There is no beauty like it. That was how the government knew where to look and who to cull. The government are afraid of them, they are afraid of the government and the normal people like me? Well, we are scared of everyone.

Stepping out of the shower, I dried my hair, dressed and applied a light make up - just enough to appear well presented and smart, but without being over the top. The right impression was vital here. Not that I ever chose to wear too much make up, I was a minimalist, you learned not to draw attention to yourself. In this society you made yourself as inconspicuous as possible.

Dressed in my smartest A-line skirt, white blouse and suit jacket, I stepped out of the house. It was a short drive across town to the government offices and as I slid out of my rundown car, I glanced up at one of the large posters I had passed. It was a picture of a girl, a beautiful girl, Bree. She was one of the diseased and the latest victim of a public massacre. Bree had been the same age as me, 24, her parents had managed, by some small miracle, to keep her at home and undetected, even as the disease took hold. Not even her parents could control her when the blood lust came. It happens in around 90% of those affected by the disease and it's the main reason the government fear the diseased so much. Those with the blood lust kill and feed on the blood of others. Why they need blood is a mystery and it is what Carlisle Cullen is on the leading edge of discovering.

I studied Carlisle's work as part of my thesis at university. The government pick up all intelligent children in the orphanages and place them through university – a nice gesture? Not at all, they train each child up so they will work for the government in researching how to best control and destroy all those affected. That is where I had to go this day, to meet Aro Volturi, Prime Minister of our small nation. He handpicks every child through university and those with the greatest potential are sent to work specially for him. I was under no illusions - I was to be a weapon in the war he was waging.

What I did not understand, however, is exactly who he was fighting against. My eyes drew up from where I sat in his plush waiting room because on one of the walls stood a picture of the aged but beautiful Prime Minister. His skin was so pale, his eyes formidable and his posture lethal. He killed his own kind – but why?


	3. Chapter 2

A girl, well dressed in grey trousers, a pink shirt and a three quarter sleeve length suit jacket came into the waiting room where I sat. My eyes were drawn to her from the poster I had been studying with Aro's picture on. Her eyes were a pale gray and her mousy brown hair fell in loose ringlets about her pale face. She wore minimal makeup which did nothing to hide the shadows under her eyes. She looked tired and stressed and her voice as she summoned me forwards to the door to Aro's office, was bored. She gave me a tight smile that did not reach her eyes as I stood up to join her. Her hand pressed against the polished steel door as she pushed it open. Light flooded in through the door and it was only then that I realized how dark the waiting room was, despite the light furniture and large vases of flowers.

Following the girl in through the pouring light, I stepped into Aro's office. It was huge, the floor was the same polished wood that extended from his waiting room and his desk was placed over a plush rug with a modern style. The great desk the Prime Minister sat behind was solid glass with polished metal legs. Its size was ostentatious and it was as cold, clinical and sharp as the rest of the building. A flat screen computer blocked my view from the door, but as the receptionist took me further into the office, so Aro became visible from behind the paperwork, electronics and stationary that littered his great desk.

Standing as I approached, his body was a dark silhouette before the late morning sun as it hung level with the tall skyscraper. The office walls were floor to ceiling glass on two sides that met at right angles, the other two walls were a clinical off-white that only served to exaggerate the cold and detached feel of this building. The warmest thing in the room was the girl's pink blouse. Aro wore a dark grey suit and a black tie, his hair was black and his angular face was deceptively welcoming and he studied me like a hawk.

"Ah! Miss Swan, a pleasure to meet you at last. Thank you Lauren, you may leave us." Aro began, his voice halting my appraisal of his office. The girl named Lauren left as my eyes drifted to his. A tight smile formed upon my lips that would have challenged Lauren's earlier, cold greeting. Moving to the chair Aro indicated, I sat down, the woven black thread of the seat deceptively comfortable. Despite the chair beckoning me to relax, I did nothing of the sort. I knew that the impression the Government liked to give off was one of protection and comfort, yet they were nothing of the sort. It was all a charade.

Aro was shuffling papers about his desk and as he slid a few across, from beneath he exposed two profiles. Each had my picture on, the first of me as an eleven year old in the orphanage and the second was from my university. I was not surprised he had managed to source such a private document, the government controlled everything. Opening the oldest profile, I could see the picture more clearly and hardly recognized the child who stared up at me with brown eyes that were almost too big for her face. I had been a small child, slight and underfed to some degree. My hair was long and a dirty brown through too few washes. It hung in tails down about my shoulders and the picture must have been taken before my mischievous friend Annie managed to procure some scissors and we chopped it all off. Our brazen plan did not go unpunished. I was beaten for cutting my hair and Annie was not just beaten but quarantined as punishment for stealing the scissors. I never cut my hair after that, but I valued the months I had where no one could drag me by my hair.

"So, you came from Northforks Orphanage?" Aro mused, "Your intelligence was quite remarkable – then again, that's not surprising given your parents." His eyes lifted from where they were perusing my file, and as he held my gaze, I noticed their colour was the darkest burnt red. It was unnerving and reminded me of the blood I had often seen spilt over the pavements and town squares. I tore my eyes away, lowering my gaze to my hands where they lay clenching and unclenching in my lap.

"Such a shame about your parents, I am so sorry to hear about their loss, even after all this time." He offered a sickeningly sweet and sympathetic smile that was just too saccharine. My jaw clenched a fraction before a soft, gratuitous, "Thank you." Swept past my own lips.

"Your grades have been outstanding in every test…" Aro continued to muse delightedly as he drifted through my university file. With his gaze on the papers, I could get a good look of the man I had heard so much about and yet never seen in person. His face was most definitely older and yet that is where fact ended and the mystery surrounding Aro Volturi began. His skin possessed and unnatural youth and glowed with a vitality well below his years. In truth, no one knew exactly how old Aro Volturi was, he had been in power since I was a child, rivaled and yet never defeated. In the last ten years opponents had become scarce and the man had lead unopposed. It was a s if everyone gave up trying to knock him off his seat of power. Such a revelation created an aura of immortality about the Prime Minister. That he was unstoppable and formidable. Maybe he was, to look at he was as beautiful as the diseased…

"So," Aro continued. "A brand new Audi will be dropped off at your house tomorrow morning. You will start then. Report to the Government Research Facility by 9am. You will be working with Doctor Whitlock as he is taking over Carlisle Cullen's work with us." I did not miss the acidic tone his voice took as he mentioned Doctor Cullen's name.

"Your wage will more than cover your living costs. All our Government scientists are well looked after Miss Swan because their work is, after all, lifesaving." He finished, the acid tone washing away into a righteous smile.

I nodded slowly, silent and accepting because that was how Aro liked his minions. There was little I could say, my destiny with the Government was etched in stone the moment they plucked me from the orphanage to put me through university.

"You may go now." He dismissed me and I rose, turning and walking across the room, keen to escape. As my hand clasped the silver door handle, his voice stopped me dead in my tracks. "Oh and Isabella…" I turned back to meet the red of his eyes and the menacing, dangerous gleam they had taken on. "Here, the work you will carry out is not as much of a liberty as at University. Carlisle's misguided desire to save the diseased is not what you will be working to achieve. Your every move will be watched. You are too valuable an asset to loose Miss Swan. It would be a shame to loose such promising intellect from our research base." He finished pointedly, leaving me under no illusions that should I stray from the protocol like Carlisle Cullen and those before me, I too would be just another name missing.


	4. Chapter 3

The silence in the elevator was torture, I watched the arrow of the dial point to each floor as it descended at a painful pace. My heart was pounding in my chest, I could feel its heavy beat against my throat and ribcage as my nerves tingled with adrenaline.

My hands clasped the silver rail behind me from where I had backed myself into the corner. A defense mechanism no less to ensure he was not watching me. I clung to the rail as if it might hold me up, I had never had my life so openly threatened and from the head of the government himself, it was not so much of a threat as a promise. Should I step wrongly, I really would die.

Aro's threat was still reverberating clearly in my head, his satin voice curling around the knife-like words. The moment the bell chimed to announce we had reached the ground floor and the silver doors swung open, I was out and walking as swiftly as my legs would allow across the marble floor of the grand entryway. I had barely noticed the sleek desks and great windows that looked out onto the city streets. Light poured in through the large panes, stretching across the gleaming floor and lighting the atrium with an airy glow. Statues and posters stood tall upon every wall that was not made of glass, they shouted of the Government's fight against the disease and the inevitable victory they would have.

Walking up to the well-dressed woman I had met when I entered, I gave back the 'visitor' badge that had my name written in black marker across its face. With a smile the blonde haired lady took it off me, crossing my name off the register of interviewees.

"It is wonderful to have you with us Isabella." She smiled and it was a shallow attempt at politeness. She handed me another rectangular badge, my name engraved across the embossed front and the role of 'Researcher' clearly written in black above my name. At the bottom, clearly in red and as well engraved as my name, read the words 'Area 12 – Supervised'. I opened my mouth to question but closed it again because the insinuation was obvious. I would be watched. Ignorant to me, the girl continued, tapping away at a computer whilst she spoke to me.

"The car is arranged to be dropped off at 8am tomorrow morning. It comes with a sat nav that is pre programmed to get you to the Government Labs. When you get to the labs you will be meeting a Dr Whitlock, but I am sure Aro explained this all to you in your interview. I shall leave it at that and say, Welcome to the Government Miss Swan." With a still smile devoid of any welcoming warmth, the receptionist returned to her work.

As I stepped out into the cold air, the icy bite of winter hitting my face, I took the first deep breath I had managed since I arrived at the Governemnt offices. I had never been so glad to leave a place and my stomach turned with the revelation that it was to be my life now. It was destined, the Government had made it so.

The phone was ringing as I entered the flat, the shrill tone grating and alarming after the tense morning I had had. It stopped just as I reached the handset but chirped with a new message. Looking at the display it flashed 3 answer messages and 4 missed calls. 3 from Jacob and one from Felix. The missed call I heard and recent message were from Felix. His voice was husky and calm as he simply said, _'Call Jacob, he's worried about you and the Government. Stick to what I told you.'_

With a sigh I consulted my mobile, I had left it in reception when I went up for the interview since there were no mobile phones allowed beyond the ground floor for security. I had 6 missed calls and 2 answerphone messages, all from Jake. With a sigh I listened to the most recent.

'_Call me Bella or I will come and find you! I told you not to go to the interview, I told you to run and get out of town. Why did you not listen to me?! You know how serious things are, you listen to Felix too much, he can handle himself when things go down…_' He paused and I knew he was raking his hand through his hair in exasperation. When he spoke next his voice was lower, yet it broke me with its concern. _'You can't Bells, you can't become another missing person.'_

The heavy pounding of a blunt fist on the door made me jump and putting my phone down I slipped as silently as I could to the door of my apartment. Rising onto tip toe, not even daring to breathe, I glanced through the peephole. I was sure, with some certainty that it was Jacob, yet after my newly formed ties with the Government, I could not be entirely sure. Seeing the familiar black hair and lanky body, I opened the door. My best friend stormed in like a hurricane, his black eyes wild with worry and anger as he rounded on me.

"You went didn't you? Jesus, I told you not to Bella!" He came towards me, his fury blinding. "You should have run when I said-"

"And I would have been killed on the border." I finished frankly. We had had this conversation, debate and argument so much. He could not see that I was fucked either way, the Government had me backed into a corner. "Jacob, I run away, I die. I go against their orders in the lab, I die. I quit work there, I die. There is nothing for me but to obey."

"Then if you are so convinced you will die whatever way then you should have just tried to run!" I was like a slap in the face and I took a step back, my own anger finally bubbling over.

"And then what Jacob? Who will look after you when you get in way over your head? Besides, I figured my life will be better lost in there passing information out and working towards a worthy cause than to run away from friends and family and be gunned down on the border. Jess and Eric didn't make it over the border and they weren't hand picked to work for the Government!" I shouted, slamming my hands down on the old, rickety dining table that stood between us.

With an exasperated growl Jake punched the wall a dent in the plaster emerging from the impact. "Its Felix isn't it? Just because he saved your life once, you look up to everything he says!" He snarled, black eyes blazing.

"No. Felix is the only one who can see how hopeless all this is! The likelihood is I will die and better in there trying to get information out."

Now it was Jacob's turn to reel as if struck. He staggered back a step, the anger gone from his face, a worried expression replacing it. "Is that what he's told you to do?" His voice was just above a whisper, broken and defeated and so distraught.

He blurred from my vision and it was only as I felt the warm liquid of a tear on my cheek that I realized I was crying. In a moment I was in his arms, his strong embrace holding me tightly. My face burrowed into his T-shirt as I let the tears fall. I clung to his waist as I spoke into his chest, each word muffled, but legible enough I hoped. "No. He wants me to do exactly as the council wish to remain as safe as possible."


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Jacob left a short while after our confrontation. He had been my best friend for years since I left the orphanage. He lived with his tribe on the edge of the city and it was possibly one of the most protected places to be. For years Jacob had been insisting I live with them, since the council seemed to respect them enough not to go onto the site. Maybe it was because the tribe was so large that it could potentially challenge the council? I was not sure, but all I knew was that there was an eerie silence from the council where the tribe was concerned. It was like Aro Volturi chose to believe they didn't exist and turned a blind eye.

That night, sullen from my argument with Jacob and despite our make up, I ate without enthusiasm. I was going through the motions knowing that the next day my life would change completely once again. I had heard nothing from Felix the rest of the evening and still nothing as I rose to get myself dressed the next day. My dream about Alice did not return, but I did dream about the long, dark halls of the laboratories I would be working in; they were endless and a maze. Jacob was shouting at me to get out, but every corridor I ran down lead to a dead end and all the time behind me I could hear the slow, daunting steps of Aro following me.

I showered early, ready to receive the car when it arrived. I was stood with my wet hair hanging limply about my shoulders. When damp it had its own tighter curls that loosened once dry. The young woman who gazed back out of the mirror at me looked exhausted. Dark rings purpled the underneath of her dark brown eyes. I debated makeup, just to remove the tell-tale signs of sleep depravation, yet fear stopped me ever reaching for the bag.

I was dressed in a dark suit. It was smart, but comfortable enough to fit under a lab coat. As I pulled the last strands of hair back into a ponytail there was a rap on the door. The bell had long since stopped working and there was just not enough money coming in to get it fixed. Maybe working in the Governemnt Labs would bring in enough money to start doing my flat up. The reality staring back at me in the mirror was enough to make me believe that I should be so lucky.

Turning away from the mirror I walked through the flat and opened the door on a smartly dressed man in a pin-stripe suit. He had a briefcase in his hand and a forbidding smile upon his lips.

"Miss Swan." He stated as he pushed passed me into the flat. Walking over to the dining table he placed the briefcase atop it roughly and the table swayed for a moment. Unclipping the locks, he flipped the black leather lid up and from within he drew out a few leaves of paper and a key. Snapping the case shut he laid the contents out, not bothering to look at me as he did.

"You will find the car will meet your every satisfaction. It has every superior amenity available on the market. Mr Volturi likes to ensure his staff have only the best."

_Bait_ I thought quietly to myself. That was all the cars were. Shower your staff with expensive gifts and they will stay on.

The man continued on, "The car is also equipped with tracking devices in case it is stolen." I smiled stiffly, they did not care if the car was stolen but they did care if I disappeared in it. "Here is a card - " He slid a credit card across the table towards me, "for fuel expenses and finally, if you could sign these." He handed me two lots of contracts. I took them, my eyes drifting over the print on them for a moment before the deliveryman cut in sharply, "Soon, Miss Swan, I am in a rush." My eyes met his defiant ones and I held his gaze for a long moment. Felix's words rang in my ears about not trusting anything you had to sign for the Government.

The man's eyebrow rose in challenge and I glanced back down to the contracts before lowering the pen to the paper and swiftly filling in my name. "Very good." The man took the papers brusquely, cleaving each to reveal a thin rice paper underneath that he took and left me with the originals.

"Here is the car key. Farewell." With that he placed the Audi key in my hand and swept from my flat in a breeze of expensive aftershave.

The sleek black Audi sat on the curbside waiting for me. Its polished exterior shone in the morning sun, it was a far cry from my rusty, old hatchback. Inside the controls were almost alien in their majestic beauty, silver and polished leather gleaming around me. I swallowed hard, it was the Government's equivalent of a blood diamond and such a thought did not sit easily with me. Sure enough, as the receptionist had said yesterday, the sat nav awoke as I turned the engine on and the planned route to the labs was already programmed in.

The ride to the labs was smooth, the throaty hum of the engine, thrilling, even to me. I wove it cautiously through the relevant car park and into a small bay near the entrance. The Labs themselves were huge with multiple buildings and sectors. I had followed the directions to Sector C sign posted as the location of Areas 10 – 15. As I stepped out of my car, I took a second glance at my staff badge to confirm my location.

Content I was in the right area, I crossed the car park to the glass door entry of Sector C. Before me, a desk similar to that of the Government offices reception, stood waiting. Behind it a man was talking on the phone and he glanced up as I approached. He asked the caller to wait as he lifted a second phone to his other ear, tapping in a number into the second receiver. "Dr Whitlock, the new recruit is here. Thankyou." With that he replaced the phone and nodded over to the seating to the right. "Dr Whitlock will be right out. Have a seat." With that he returned to his call.

I had barely sat down before a tall man strode through a door behind the reception desk. He was dressed in a dark blue suit, a plastic id badge hanging from his belt. He was slim, yet well muscled, his eyes clear blue and his hair a frame of dirty blonde. His jaw was strong and his lips were curled into a charming half smile as he crossed the foyer to where I sat. I rose as his hand extended in greeting. "Dr Swan, welcome. I am Dr Whitlock, but you can call me Jasper."

Everything about Jasper betrayed the cold and harsh impression the government gave off and the warmth of his voice was like honey to me. I smiled, a blush warming my cheeks as he tilted his head, "Follow me." Picking up my work bag, I followed him through the door he entered via, and along a light and airy corridor. It was nothing like the ones that haunted my sleep, we drifted from one corridor to another passing rooms and labs all requiring id for entry. On the walls were printed out journal articles from the Government's achievements at the forefront of science. One wall held pictures of children, I slowed as I passed them, pausing when one picture and article caught my eye. Jasper felt me slow and came to a halt next to me. I gazed up at the picture of a girl, Anna, who had been in the orphanage with me. Her hair was shaved off, making her almost unrecognizable but for the roundness of her cheeks and the steel gray of her eyes. Next to the picture the article read:

**Further Tests on Diseased Children Prove Inconclusive to Reasons for Blood Thirst.**

_Dr Carlisle Cullen's studies proved once again inconclusive when 30 diseased children from Government orphanages were tested for blood dependency. The doctor did not seem content to explain that all children underwent a month long starvation of human blood. Of the thirty in the study, 14 died and 16 were weak and severely malnourished. The reasons for death seemed unclear and autopsies are being carried out on the children as this goes to press. The study raises questions about whether we are any closer to finding a way to kill the diseased. Whilst the study was only a pilot to investigate the possible limitations and errors found in the experiment, the Prime Minister appealed that a larger scale study should be carried out involving more children. From future studies we know that Dr Cullen is hotly against the use of children in studies that could cause death. With tensions growing between the infamous doctor and the Prime Minister, the future of research with Dr Cullen at the fore looks bleak._

"Bella." Jasper's warm voice drew me away from the article and as I left to follow him I caught a glimpse of the tag line beneath the Anna's picture:

'_Featured: One of the diseased, orphaned children that died in the study. Her autopsy may reveal clues as to whether blood starvation really does have the power to kill the diseased.'_

With his hand on my back, Jasper pushed me along ahead of him. Yet my mind lingered on the words. Carlisle had been the greatest force of resistance in preventing they type of experimentation that could kill on the diseased, most of all children. With Carlisle gone, who was going to stop the barbaric experiments Aro insisted upon?

Jasper guided me through a door labeled 'Area 12'. The laboratory we entered was vast. The smell of chemicals was strong, but nothing I was not accustomed to at university. We wove through lab tables to the back of the lab where there were a variety of lockers.

"This is where you can store your belongings. This lab is used only for histological examination. Through this door, we carry out more of the quarantined experiments." He indicated to a thick door that lead only to a room with wash basins and a number of lab coats hung on pegs. At the far end of the small room lay another door into the second lab.

My eyes explored the lab and the expensive equipment that lined the walls yet my mind still lingered on the article. I knew children died after the Reapings, but to hear about it and to know I was to be a participant in their death, it sent shards of ice through my body.

"Will I have to experiment on children?" The words slipped from my mouth before I had even thought them and Jasper paused from where he was handing my an id badge like his own. His eyes found mine and there was a compassion in them that nearly brought me to my knees. Without words he confirmed my fear and it was like being doused with hot oil. I swallowed. Hard.

"We have to do what Aro wishes. If he wants us to experiment on children, then we do." His voice was no more bereft of emotion as it had been before, but this time there was an edge to it. A resentment laced into it that pleased me. He was no more at ease with this as I was.

"How do you cope?" He cut off from me then, his eyes drifting away as he placed the id card in my hand, "We all have our ways." He answered bluntly before continuing swiftly to change the subject, "Here is your id card, it will get you into the areas you need. Come, I will show you the histology experiments we are carrying out right now."


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

I spent the morning with Jasper observing the work he had already carried out. I studied the tissue samples he had of the skin, spleen and blood of infected persons. Knowing even more about the methods by which the Government found specimens for their experiments, I dared not ask if the donors of the samples were still alive. Jasper and I worked in silence, studying and comparing healthy samples with infected samples. They had hoped to find significant differences between the healthy spleen samples and the infected, yet on first glance at least, both seemed the same.

Lunch time came and we made our way towards the designated cafeteria. Jasper brought a small bad with him that held his home made sandwiches. I, however, went over to the hot plates. Settling on a mac and cheese with salad option, I sat back down next to Jasper. He was silent, pensively observing the table and seemingly ruminating over every bite. In the lab, talk had been infrequent but easy, the work we were carrying out giving us common ground on which to meet. Out here, it seemed things were not so easy. As I was about to take another mouthful of pasta, he suddenly broke the silence.

"What did you want to be when you grew up Bella?" We both knew that this was not my first choice. I enjoyed science, but such experimentation on humans was not what I would have chosen for myself.

"I never really gave it much thought… After the government took me from the orphanage I just studied what they wished. I was never allowed to fantasise about a job I would chose myself and there seemed no point when the choice would never be mine. I was just lucky that I enjoy science, well, some aspects of it." I smiled tightly. "What about you?" I asked genuinely curious.

Jasper was quiet for a moment, "I was born here, but moved away when I was twelve. We lived abroad but when I finished studying at university I decided to return here to live since I had friends here and wanted to help. The Prime Minister heard of my return and the qualifications I held and gave me a job." His smile was sardonic for we both knew you never refused Aro Volturi. What did surprise me though, was his next comment that he loved his job. I opened my mouth to question him, but he did not linger to answer any more questions. His rose, packing his lunch stuff away and waiting for me to join him. It was the second time he had shut down my line of enquiry. Letting him keep his thoughts private, I followed silently, swiftly packing up my own empty utensils and sliding the tray into the used rack as I left the cafeteria.

As the days drifted by, I began to learn that Jasper was a distinctly private character. Whilst he was quietly perceptive of everything around him, he had a charisma and charm that warmed even the most icy demeanor. We worked well together the silences as we worked becoming fewer and further between. We would discuss our work, feeding off each other's enthusiasm and as the weeks drifted by we became closer and closer.

Each morning that I awoke, the dread of going off to work for the Government waned until I barely felt a resentment. That was, until one afternoon, I was finishing a write up on some research Jasper had allowed me to carry out alone. The facility was quiet with nearly everyone gone but for security, and me. Packing up my stuff, I switched off the desk light and left the room. Walking down the hall that building was silent but for the sounds of my footfalls and the hum of laboratory instruments. I took out my phone to send Jake a quick text when a scream echoed through the deserted hallways. I stopped, my blood chilled and my pulse pounding. Hairs rose to stand on the back of my neck and I turned towards the sound, I could hear voices and another scream, a third and then more scuffling and a distinctly smothered scream. Adrenaline scorched through my veins, nerves awakening and crackling like static over my skin.

I was held steadfast, torn between the desire to run and help and yet I was also so terrified. Too terrified almost to run away. The scuffles were getting louder, morphing into footsteps, heavy ones and I shrank back into the dark of an unlit doorway. In the darkness I remained as still as possible and my mind cast me back to the Stealings I had endured at the orphanage. The forbidding footsteps and the succeeding struggle as they dragged another child off to their fate. I held a hand over my mouth, instinctual and lost in memories, as the scuffling sounds approached. I could hear a door open and then every sound was as clear as day. The click of high heels, the heavy soft thump of rubber soled shoes and the petrified whimper of a child.

I felt my knees weaken and I braced a hand against the wall to keep myself upright. I tried to quiet my breathing; slow, controlled breaths but my lungs were screaming. The party stopped across from the shadowed doorway I was lurking in. Their attention was upon a door that a woman with red hair was opening. She glanced behind her to the two men holding the child and behind them, dressed in a white lab coat was Jasper. My heart sank and my veins filled with ice but it was nothing compared to the emotions as I caught the woman's face. It was the lady from the Stealings at the orphanage. Jasper's gaze was impassive as he consulted a clipboard of notes. The child, a young boy with black hair and russet skin hung loosely in the grip of the two men. Defeated or doped I did not know. The red headed woman, opened the heavy silver door and they all entered, the toes of the boy's shoes dragging along the floor. Slowly jasper shut the door behind them and I glanced above it to a sign that read is thick black letters 'Area 13 – Restricted'.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I barely registered the drive home. I was numb the moment I sat in my car. My fingers tingled as if devoid of blood and all sensation. The motor ability of my muscles was shot and I sat, quaking. As a child in the orphanage I recognized that this happened, that children were taken away to death or experimentation, but never had I been able to truly conceive what that meant. To see it happen before me now as an adult, and to know that the next morning the child may be my new subject made me sick. In university, I was taught the ethics of scientific research and forcing experimentation on people was unethical and wrong. Yet in times of war, when panic and fear prevailed it was surprising what the human race would reduce themselves to.

I looked up from where I sat in my drive, the purr of the Audi a welcome distraction from the oppressive silence. The lights were off in the house and its windows were shadow filled. It looked uninviting and Jake's words had never been so appealing. Could I run now? Could I get away with it? I had argued back at him and said that I was dead either way - but could I die with the knowledge that I had experimented on humans? I lowered my forehead to the smooth leather steering wheel and tears bloomed from my tightly shut eyes. I felt the warm, wet path they created in their wake and I longed to swipe them away, but I could not bring myself to move. All I could feel was despair. I was trapped, where Aro wanted me. I could run, make Jake happy and have Felix view me as a failure, a coward. Or I could stay, work for Aro and live, haunted by my experiments for the rest of my life. I could feel my soul begin to fracture within my chest and it hurt.

For so long I had just existed. At university could almost pretend that this world of hideous barbarity did not exist and that I could do good in it. How could I do good when the devil Prime Minister was forcing me to commit such sins every day I worked for him? Suddenly furious, like an animal, caged and powerless, my hand hit the steering wheel and the blare of the horn severed the nighttime lull.

Throwing myself out of the car, angry tears rolling down my cheeks I scrambled with the lock of the front door. Once open, I threw my belongings to the floor and picked up the house phone. In a matter of seconds the ringtone stopped and in the answering silence, before he could speak, I cried out, "I cannot do this anymore, Felix! They are experimenting on children, I have seen them drag a child in and I cannot, no, I will not become one of them. I would rather be shot dead on the border."

There was silence after I spoke and through it I could literally feel Felix's intensity. After a tense, prolonged moment he merely said, "What, and make the fact that I risked my life for you 17 years ago pointless?"

I was silenced by the simmering fury in his words. I bit my lip hard, angry that he had shoved that at me and torn apart by the memory in conjured…

_I was seven, a little girl with long brown hair that was always allowed to hang loose. I was in the garden, playing amidst the wild brushes at the end of the path. I had climbed to the top of an old tree, its gnarled branches allowing me the perfect view over the little stream at the back of our property. My skirt was torn and I knew my mother was going to scold me for it. She was always fixing up my torn and wearied clothes. We had enough money, but my mother refused to keep buying new clothes for me. If I was going to ruin them, she used to say, then I could darn well wear patched up clothes._

_It was whilst I was hanging from the crown of the tree that I heard the scuffle and gunshots from the house. With the unsettling power Aro Volturi was gathering within the Government, my father had warned me to be on edge. With my heart in my throat I scrambled down from the tree, landing in the long grass with the lightest thud. I ran towards the house, its façade remaining impassive, but I up close, I could hear thumping and clattering. With my heart pounding, I walked slowly up to the window into the study. Red marks were dotted across its transparent face, and I rose on tiptoes to peer in through the window. The red dots led to great red pools and the pools lay beneath the lifeless bodies of my parents._

_The scream strangled in my throat and with a whimper I ran. I reached the front of the house and ran blindly. My legs carried me down the residential street. Houses and vehicles on the road passed in a blur of tears, adrenaline and abject fear. At the end of the street and across the road was a small, aging cottage that belonged to my grandmother. Its door was open, but I took no heed to its significance as I ran into the house. The scene was similar to my house for in the kitchen, blood littered the walls and my grandmother was slumped, motionless on the floor._

_This time a scream clawed its way passed my throat but it was stopped by a calloused hand as it snapped across my mouth. I thrashed against the arm that closed about me and held so tightly. My screams were muffled and my lungs hurt with the strain but I felt nothing in my fear. My legs kicked and my heel finally met my captor's shin as he lifted me away. He did not flinch but his grip tightened incomprehensively._

_Outside I could hear shouts, the same voices that I had heard in my house._

_"She came in here!" Breathless figures in suits appeared in the doorway. My captor swung to face them, a gun pointed their way. In opposition, they aimed their own guns at me. "We'll shoot her."_

_I could not remember more from that moment as I fainted and when I came round I was in the office of the orphanage._

"Your parents never ran." Felix's words brought me back to the current.

"No, but they should have done, then maybe they would still be alive." My voice was like ice with its resentment. I hardly recognized myself.

"They are dead because they chose to stay and fight for what was right." He never says more than he has to and he never allows his emotions to get the better of him. I learned later that it was this ability to remain impassive, yet sharp as a blade, that got us out of my grandmother's house alive.

"Like you want me to."

"Yes." There was a pause before he sighed. "The reasons you are doing what you do are far more justifiable than Aro's desire to wipe the diseased off the planet."

"Justifiable doesn't make it right." I bleated meekly.

"No, but in the long run it will be seen as a means to an end. For better or worse."

I was silent, allowing my thoughts to drift to the child. Was he alone where he was? Would I be working on him tomorrow or in a few days? Would I ever see him again?

"Do not call me off this phone again." _What?_ "It could be tapped. Aro is not foolish enough to not be keeping tabs on his employees, particularly those working on the research he deems important. If you do experiment on that child go to 6 Westgate Avenue to contact me." With a severing click he was gone and the line went dead.

I let my head fall into my hands. After a moment, I glanced at the clock for exhaustion was setting in. It was past midnight and despite I had not had dinner, I could not bring myself to eat after the events of the evening.

That night, after my light went out and my eyes were closed, my thoughts and my dreams were plagued by the russet haired boy and Alice.


End file.
